The battlefield on the Southern Hemisphere's right flank was about as dire as it could get, but at least it could still be called a battlefield. The Planetary Defense Force struggled to hold on, on the verge of annihilation, yet they were still fighting.
The left-flank continent had already become hell on earth. Overnight, countless tunnel mouths had appeared along every major transport route, and endless armies of orks had materialized everywhere as if by magic.
The continent's cities came under surprise attack. In a single night, nearly ten cities were destroyed.
Within those cities, ordinary soldiers, civilians, officials, the wealthy, and the powerful were all equal before the orks' butcher blades.
Corpses filled the streets. Blood flowed along the street drains, gathering into bright red rivers, while the stench of blood and burning flesh rose into the air above the cities.
Everyone who saw the devastation from the sky was shocked by the sight. Several reconnaissance pilots sent to investigate developed psychological problems of varying severity.
Though the Greenskins were brutal and bloodthirsty, their numbers were still far smaller than those of the humans, whose population numbered in the hundreds of millions.
Amid the chaos, large numbers of refugees still managed to escape. They formed long columns and headed toward Capello, the capital of the planet's south.
In their desperation to escape, they clogged almost every road. Chaos, stampedes, and attacks on one another were frequent. Some Greenskins pursued them, devouring lives like great green beasts.
Strictly speaking, because the Greenskins were relatively few in number, not many people died directly at their hands.
Infighting and chaos among the humans caused far more casualties. Their black-powder weapons were inadequate against the orks, but more than powerful enough to kill their own people.
The bodies of those who met violent